Ninet Tayeb
Singer, guitarist, and songwriter Ninet Tayeb has traveled from the stage at Nitzanim to rock clubs, Liverpool recording studios, and international stages.
(Photo: Barby)
Here are 40 facts about Ninet, from her childhood in Kiryat Gat to her seven studio albums and collaborations in Israel and around the world.
1. She was born on October 21, 1983, in Kiryat Gat, into a family with roots in Tunisia and Morocco. She is the third of five siblings, and her older brother Eyal served as her manager early in her career.
2. As a child, she sang at family gatherings, municipal ceremonies, and in the choir at "Rogozin" school. At 15, she won the local "Pizmon Noar" competition with a performance of "Hero" by Mariah Carey.
3. In 2000, she won Israeli Educational Television's talent competition "Kolot Utzlilim" with "Ze Lo Amiti". Before her big breakthrough, she also competed on "Hamelech Haba".
4. During her military service, she served in the Combat Engineering Corps and even recorded its anthem. She auditioned for "Kokhav Nolad" while still serving in the army.
5. On August 28, 2003, she won the first season of "Kokhav Nolad" at the final held on Nitzanim Beach. Her performance of "Yam Shel Dma'ot", associated with Zohar Argov, became her defining breakthrough moment and would remain with her for years to come! She revisited the song in a special new performance for Channel 2's farewell broadcast, held ahead of the channel's split in November 2017.
6. In November 2003, she released her debut single, "Kmo Sheshir Noge'a", written for her as a prize for winning the competition. Yaakov Rotblit wrote the lyrics, and Rami Kleinstein composed the music.
7. In 2004, she began starring in the musical drama "Hashir Shelanu", playing Ninet Levy, a character inspired by her own life. She also performed its theme song, "Od Me'at". The series became a cult favorite and greatly expanded her audience.
8. In 2005, she won a Golden Screen Award for Best Actress in a Daily Series for her role in "Hashir Shelanu". She was already pursuing parallel careers as a singer and actress before releasing a solo album.
9. In September 2006, she released her debut album, "Yechefa", produced by Aviv Geffen. Geffen wrote and composed many of its songs, including the single "Kshe'ata Kan". The album was certified gold within a day.
10. Despite Geffen's prominent role on her debut album, Ninet was already contributing as a songwriter. She co-wrote the lyrics and music for "Hi Yoda'at" with Ilai Botner.
11. In 2007, she recorded a cover of Ofra Haza's "Hake'ev Haze" with Ivri Lider. In 2008, she contributed her own version of Ilan Virtzberg's "Lo Yacholti La'asot Klum" to the "Avoda Ivrit" project.
12. On November 18, 2009, she released her second album, "Komunikativi". Working with members of "Rockfour" marked a sharp turn in her career toward raw alternative rock, far removed from the polished pop sound of her debut.
13. On "Komunikativi", she wrote all the lyrics and co-composed most of the songs. The singles "Im Ani Elech", "Medabrim", and "Hakala" also presented her as a songwriter with an independent voice.
14. In 2011, she contributed to "Bad Love" by Gilad Kahana, who was working under the project name "The Walking Man". She sang "My Game" with him and added vocals to other tracks.
15. In May 2012, she released her third album and her first in English, "Sympathetic Nervous System". It was recorded at "Motor Museum" studios in Liverpool with members of "Rockfour" and produced by Mike Crossey.
16. For "Sympathetic Nervous System", she wrote and composed the songs in English, including "ICU" and "What Are You People". The choice of language and sound opened a parallel path for her career outside Israel.
17. In May 2013, she released her fourth album, "Kol Hachayot Yad'u", produced by Idan Rabinovici and Yossi Mizrahi. Ninet wrote most of its lyrics and music, while Dori Manor wrote the lyrics for "Oshek" and "Arba Hamitot".
18. The credits for "Kol Hachayot Yad'u" list Ninet on vocals and guitars, but also on percussion and a drill. This small detail illustrates the album's search for unconventional sounds.
19. In January 2014, she joined Cyndi Lauper onstage during her concert in Israel, and the two sang "True Colors" together. Later that year, she launched the acoustic show "Tzolalot" with cellist Maya Belsitzman.
20. In 2015, she appeared on Steven Wilson's fourth solo album, "Hand. Cannot. Erase.", including on "Routine" and "Ancestral". This collaboration introduced her voice to progressive rock audiences around the world.
21. In 2015, she sang "Dhub Utfatar (Ya Salima)" in Iraqi Arabic as part of the project "Dudu Tassa & the Kuwaitis". Alongside her English-language rock, she continued exploring connections with the region's musical traditions.
22. In September 2015, she appeared at two of Wilson's concerts at London's "Royal Albert Hall". She later joined him for shows in Europe and North America.
23. In January 2016, she appeared on Wilson's mini-album "4½". They performed "Don't Hate Me" as a duet, revisiting a song originally written for "Porcupine Tree".
24. In 2016, she moved to Los Angeles with her family to develop her international music career. She continued performing in Israel alongside her work and concerts in the United States.
25. On February 3, 2017, she released her fifth album and her second in English, "Paper Parachute". Mizrahi, also known as Joseph E-Shine, produced it, while Ninet contributed to the arrangements and played acoustic and electric guitars.
26. "Paper Parachute" also featured Belsitzman on cello and percussion players alongside guitars, keyboards, and programming. Andrew Scheps mixed most of the album, while Crossey mixed "Superstar".
27. In March 2017, Ninet reached another major musical milestone with an appearance on "NPR"'s celebrated and iconic "Tiny Desk" series. She and her band performed "Child", "Elinor", and "Superstar" from "Paper Parachute" in the series' intimate setting.
28. In 2017, she reunited with Wilson on his fifth solo album, "To the Bone". He said he wrote "Pariah" specifically as a duet for the two of them, and it became one of their signature collaborations.
29. In January 2018, she released "Gibor", with lyrics she wrote to music by Tassa. Later that year, her performances with Wilson appeared on the live album and concert film "Home Invasion: In Concert at the Royal Albert Hall".
30. That same year, Ninet played Yaeli in the drama-thriller series "When Heroes Fly", created by Omri Givon and inspired by Amir Gutfreund's novel. The series, in which she starred alongside Tomer Capone, Michael Aloni, Nadav Netz, and Moshe Ashkenazi, won Best Series at Canneseries and was later distributed on Netflix.
31. In 2019, she recorded a version of The Weeknd's "Can't Feel My Face" with "Red Band". Their performance brought the pop hit into a world of guitars, groove, and rock vocals.
32. In 2020, she released "Feel the Buzz", continuing her English-language songwriting. She said the inspiration came from a bee she saw on a window screen at her Los Angeles home, and she made the demo in her home studio.
33. In 2021, she released "Rak Shelo Tipol Haruach", which she wrote while ill with COVID-19. That year also brought "Kamti Lirkod", a creative collaboration with Tassa and Kahana.
34. In 2022, she released "Who Is Us" and later appeared on "Black Velvet" by the duo "Infected Mushroom". The two songs demonstrate her movement between guitar-based rock and electronic music.
(Photo: FaceOff)
35. On July 5, 2023, she released her sixth album, "Kamti Lirkod", her first Hebrew-language album since "Kol Hachayot Yad'u". Its 12 tracks combined rock, pop, groove, and ballads.
36. "Kamti Lirkod" featured numerous writers and performers. Its songs included "Kacha Ze" with Tuna and "Horeget" with Assaf Amdursky and "Garden City Movement".
37. In September 2023, the duet "Rock Bottom" was released as part of "The Harmony Codex", Wilson's seventh solo album. This time, the starting point was a song Ninet had written and sent him as a guitar-based demo, which he developed into a cinematic orchestral arrangement.
38. In 2024, her song "Reborn" was chosen to close the documentary "Screams Before Silence". It had been written before the events of October 7, but gained additional meaning through its connection with the film.
39. On "Kachol Lavan", released ahead of "Ani Nina", she humorously revisits "Yam Shel Dma'ot". More than two decades after Nitzanim, she incorporates her breakthrough moment into a new song co-written with Yonatan Galila.
40. On June 4, 2026, she released her seventh album, "Ani Nina", featuring 11 songs. She wrote the lyrics and music, sometimes with collaborators, and worked with several producers while also taking an active role in production.
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